Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Pierce, Proofreader-adjective
March 18th, 9:30 in the morning.
Ji Dong, Ren Jianmo, Mo Tiangen, and the two new members of their team, Fan Hemian and Fan Luming, stood together in front of the huge Hourglass Cube.
Even though it wasn’t their first time, Ji Xiao’niao was still a bit nervous.
“So, shall I draw?”
Ji Dong rubbed his slightly cold fingers and turned around to look at his four companions.
Well, either way, it’s the same result. Teacher Dagen waved his hand at him, “Go ahead, go ahead!”
Ji Dong reached out to the giant hourglass and touched the familiar air wall.
“Please select the difficulty level of the [Film] you want to challenge.”
The prompt sound fell, and Ji Xiao’niao finally saw two options this time, ‘B’ and ‘A’.
According to the result discussed with his companions, Ji Xiao’niao pressed the ‘B’ option.
The glowing cube floating in the hourglass slowly rotated, and the light particles gathered into a vortex. Then one of the cubes broke away from the light vortex, passed through the slender neck of the hourglass, and fell, emitting a crisp crashing sound.
Immediately afterward, the air wall suddenly lit up, and the five people heard a burst of cheering.
Everyone focused their attention on the screen.
[Welcome! Welcome players! Welcome to the [24 points] game! ]
The screen was pitch black, with only a man’s voice echoing from within.
The man’s voice had a harsh electric sound that had been filtered by a machine, and although it wasn’t exactly unpleasant, there was a sense of deliberate artificiality.
Then, countless electric dots appeared on the black screen, merging until they formed six three-dimensional letters.
It was the title: [Strange Tales at 24:00]
The mechanical male voice continued, [Have you heard of the strange tales in this city?]
The title made up of light particles disappeared, replaced by a strange man wearing a rabbit mask sitting in front of a camera.
The rabbit mask could not be considered ugly, but it had an indescribable wittiness and eeriness to it, especially the cleft mouth that extended in an exaggerated curve to the sides of the cheeks. The eye holes beneath the brow bones were pitch black, making it impossible to see the eyes of the man behind it. It was as if a rabbit puppet was speaking directly in front of the camera.
[Do you want to experience the fun of these strange tales firsthand?]
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Qlat atja rfcafcmf, atf gjyyla wjrx wjc vlrjqqfjgfv jujlc.
Yc atf ijguf rmgffc, j wjq bo atf mlas ecobivfv, klat rwjii lcnfgafv vgbq-rtjqfv mbbgvlcjafr, ilxf rwjii jggbkr lcrfgafv lcab atf wjq.
Vlcmf atf rqffv bo atf wjgxfgr kjr abb ojra, Al Gbcu mbeiv bcis rff jybea akb-atlgvr bo atf ijcvwjgxr.
“School, aquarium, residential area, riverbank…”
Ji Dong quickly thought to himself.
[Only those who get 24 points can be saved!]
The man wearing a rabbit head mask said in a pompous tone as if he was an opera singer.
[Come on! Find your 24 points!]
The marked areas on the city map were enlarged one by one, and finally, all five people present were able to see the contents. There were a total of 13 landmarks.
Because the entire trailer was only 30 seconds long, excluding the beginning and end, each landmark was only given a short one or two seconds.
They saw a hanging schoolgirl reflected in the school window, a dark shadow in the aquarium that looked like a mermaid, fresh trails of blood outside an abandoned silo, the unoccupied riverbank, and the spreading ripples in a circle……
And behind each scene, there was a playing card.
The scenes flashed by so quickly that Ji Dong couldn’t match a scene with a card.
However, just by these eerie scenes combined with the title they just saw, Ji Dong was one hundred percent sure that they were about to face a “world full of urban legends!”
After the 13 scenes were shown, the drop-shaped landmarks returned to the map of the city one by one, and the trailer came to an end.
The man with the rabbit mask suddenly leaned in front of the camera, a bizarre smiling face completely occupying the widescreen.
[Remember, no more, no less, exactly 24 points!]
[Come on, accept the challenge of 24 points!]
He closed the trailer repeating those words.
——————-
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
In the small meeting room of Lian Ge, Fan Hemian shouted and pounded the table repeatedly, looking extremely frustrated, “Why is it so unlucky this time? Why is it so unlucky!”
Ji Dong cautiously confirmed, “Is the [Film] we drew this time very difficult?”
“Very difficult!”
Fan Hemian answered without hesitation.
Fan Luming next to her also nodded repeatedly, agreeing with his sister’s words.
“Well, you came to the [Peach Blossom Spring] at a good time. No wonder you don’t know.”
Fan Hemian pushed aside the bangs blocking her eyes and explained to Ji Dong and the other two: “You see, in the [Peach Blossom Spring], the participants are most afraid of encountering a [Film] with a supernatural phenomena genre.”
She gave a simple example: “The most famous ones are Kayako and Sadako. Everyone knows them, right? In various movie series, they have a three-digit kill count at their hands.”
Ji Dong thought for a moment: “You mean they are difficult to deal with?”
“It’s not that they’re difficult to deal with, it’s that they’re fundamentally impossible to deal with.”
Fan Luming took over the conversation.
“Ghosts like them can’t be attacked physically. Even exorcism or shamanism won’t work. Once you encounter them, you’ll be entangled, there’s no safe zone, no escape, and 99% of the time, it’s a dead end.”
He raised his hand and made a throat-slashing gesture, “For [Films] like this, there’s a nickname in the [Peach Blossom Spring] called the ‘Unsolvable Ghost Film.’ If participants draw it, they’re as good as dead.”
“Wow…”
Ji Dong took a deep breath, “Don’t tell me we drew an ‘Unsolvable Ghost Film’?”
“It’s not that bad.”
Fan Hemian waved her hand.
“This kind of [Film] is too difficult and has an exceptionally high death rate. It only appears in a very small number of S-level difficulties. We’re only at B-level, so how could we possibly encounter this type!”
Ji Dong and Mo Tiangen both breathed a sigh of relief.
They both felt that the [Films] they drew the first three times were already difficult. If they drew an “unsolvable” ghost [Film] and saw Sadako or Kayako waiting for them once they opened their eyes, it was better to commit suicide now than to suffer unnecessary scares and torture.
“However, since it is B-level difficulty, it shouldn’t be at the ‘unsolvable’ level…”
Fan Luming spread his hands, “We are not Taoist priests. Even if we bring back a book by [tn content="Mao Shan Tu Zhi"]The Mao Shan Tu Zhi is a book of Taoist magic and exorcism practices.[/tn], we won’t be able to learn it in a month! And even if we can draw ghost charms or the exorcism talisman as it is, whether it works or not is another matter!”
“Okay, I understand.”
Ji Dong nodded.
The Fan siblings meant that if they encountered ghosts or other monsters that couldn’t be killed by physical means, as participants from the [Peach Blossom Spring], they wouldn’t have any effective attack methods and would often have to rely on “escaping” to avoid danger, putting them in a very passive situation.
However, from the trailer, they could tell that this was not just a simple ghost story [Film]. It also came with the task of “collecting 24 points,” which implied that they couldn’t just think of running away. They may even have to actively seek out danger and willingly put themselves in harm’s way.
“Ahhhh!”
Thinking of this, Ji Dong couldn’t help but shout, “This is unlucky! Next time, even as the captain, I will never be responsible for drawing lots again!”
Fan Luming glanced at him and poured a bucket of cold water without mercy. “Let’s get through this [Film] first.”
“Okay, there’s no use worrying. Let’s study the details of the trailer.”
Teacher Dagen was very optimistic.
He thought that even if the first three [Films] weren’t supernatural, they weren’t easy either. Since they couldn’t redraw lots, they should just face it calmly.
“I actually have a guess,” Fan Hemian said, standing up and taking a paper and pen from a shelf to draw a simple diagram on the table.
“I think we will be playing a game similar to ‘Blackjack,’ but instead of hitting 21, we have to reach 24 points.”
Ji Dong, an obedient child, asked, “What is ‘Blackjack?’”
“Oh, simply put, it’s drawing cards excluding the big and small joker. The sum of the points of the drawn cards closest to but not exceeding 21 wins.”
Fan Hemian easily explained, “However, the number we need to reach is now 24, and according to the rules, it’s not about getting the closest sum, but it must be 24 to win.”
Everyone sitting around the table nodded.
They all remembered the last sentence in the trailer, spoken by the man wearing a rabbit mask, “‘Remember, no more, no less, exactly 24 points!’”
“We saw 13 scenes in the trailer, which correspond exactly to the 13 numbers of playing cards.”
Fan Hemian said, listing the 13 numbers from A to K on the paper,
“However, in Blackjack, A can be equivalent to both ‘1’ and ’11’ at the same time, while the face cards, J, Q, and K all represent ’10.’”
“I can see how it is.”
Ji Dong, who rarely played card games, heard about this rule for the first time. After thinking for a moment, he immediately understood, “So, we need to get at least three playing cards to make up the number 24, right?”
“Exactly,” Fan Hemian confirmed.
Fan Hemian, who was very sensitive to numbers, had actually noticed this earlier, “I think this is why they used the rule of ’21 points’ but asked us to get ’24 points.'”
“We need to go through at least three scenes…”
Ji Dong clicked his tongue lightly, “This is too difficult.”
To be honest, he was a little afraid of ghosts and didn’t even want to go to any landmark, let alone go through at least three scenes!
At this moment, Ren Jianmo, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke.
“I remember every scene and its corresponding card points.”
Amidst the surprised gazes of everyone, Ren Jianmo, the beautiful person, smiled slightly, “I guarantee that I won’t make a mistake.”
Did I miss the explanation as to why they fell out with their guild? I thought they were going to get that explanation first…
It will be revealed soon ☺️